


Halloween

by mithrel



Category: Dresden Files (TV)
Genre: Blanket Permission, Gen, Podfic Welcome, Rituals, Samhain, Traditions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-10-12
Updated: 2011-10-12
Packaged: 2017-10-24 13:46:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,145
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/264135
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mithrel/pseuds/mithrel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Harry celebrates Halloween.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Halloween

Harry got up on the morning of October 31st with a feeling of anticipation. He wasn’t going to open today, even though it meant losing money. He’d had a pretty good year in terms of finances, enough so he could afford to splurge more than usual.

He went downstairs, and saw his mail sitting near the entryway. He picked it up and went through it. _Catalog, bill from the landlord, have to pay that today, political advertisement…What’s this?_ He picked up the orange envelope. There was no return address, and he didn’t recognize the handwriting, although it looked vaguely familiar. Who would be sending him a card? He had no family, was between girlfriends…assuming it was a card.

“Hey, Bob?”

“Yes?”

“Have a look at this, would you?” He held up the envelope and Bob scanned it.

“Hm. Nothing malignant. No magical energy at all.” He looked at Harry quizzically. “Exactly what did you want me to look for?”

“I dunno. Guess I’m just getting paranoid, but I can’t think of anyone who’d send me a card.”

“Well, open it and see.”

Harry slit the envelope open and looked at the card. It was a Halloween card, with a note jotted at the bottom. _Happy Birthday. Murphy._

“Huh. It’s from Murphy.”

“That was nice of her.”

Harry grunted, but he went into the kitchen and stuck the card to the refrigerator. Then he turned to Bob. “I’m not opening today, I deserve a day off. I’m going shopping, if you hear about any heinous crimes or magical catastrophes, wait until tomorrow to tell me.”

He didn’t wait for an answer. As he started his Jeep, he ran through what he needed to get. _Hmm...apples, nuts…and where the hell am I going to get straw? Maybe a pumpkin pie and a steak…Oh, and candy for the trick-or-treaters._

That was the one thing that annoyed Harry about his birthday. He didn’t mind the trick-or-treaters, but he couldn’t do what he wanted to do until after ten, or he’d be interrupted. Ah, well.

@*@*@

Harry got back from his errands and started unpacking. Food in the fridge or cupboard, candy in a big bowl, the candles and the rest of the stuff stacked out of the way on a shelf. It had taken longer than he expected to get everything, and he was hungry.

“There were three calls, and a customer who seemed extremely disgusted that you weren’t open.”

“Too bad. It’s my birthday, and I’m taking a day off.”

He scrounged something out of the fridge, to tide him over until after the trick-or-treaters were gone, then wrote a check for his landlord and was about ready to leave for the post office when the phone rang again.

He ignored it, but the answering machine picked up, and he heard. “Dresden. Pick up the phone. It’s Murphy.”

He groaned. _So much for the quiet evening._ He picked up the phone. “Yeah, Murph, whatcha got?”

“Nothing.” She sounded surprised.

His brow furrowed. “Well then why are you calling?”

“I wanted to wish you a happy birthday. I sent you a card, but I wasn’t sure you’d get it today.”

“I got it.” He paused. “How did you know when my birthday was?”

She snorted. “It’s on your record, Dresden. Figures you’d be born on Halloween. Was there a full moon, too?”

Harry bristled. “No there wasn’t, not that it’s any of your business. It’s not like I could decide when I was born, you know.”

“Yeah, I know. Look, I gotta go. If anything comes up, I’ll call you.”

“Fine.” Harry hung up the phone, wondering how Murphy could be so annoying even when she was being nice. On the other hand, if she’d been _too_ nice, he’d have worried there was something wrong with her.

He went to the post office to get it done, and when he came home he figured it was time to put out the candy. He always got several trick-or-treaters, attracted by the sign on his door, although he didn’t bother to do anything special. He wasn’t running a haunted house, despite the fact that he had a ghost.

By nine there weren’t any more coming, so he locked his door and went into the kitchen to get started. He got out everything he’d need, the food, candles, and straw, and called Bob in. He put the food on the table, and set three extra places, where he put nuts and apples. At Samhain, places were traditionally set for the dead. Two of the plates were for his parents, but the third was for Winifred, not Justin.

He didn’t have a fireplace, so couldn’t lay a new fire, but he did burn straw for Winifred, since Bob couldn’t do it. Bob was the one who had told him about Samhain, since although Christianity was taking hold in northern England in his lifetime, there were still people who observed the old ceremonies and celebrations. He’d decided to commemorate it, and had for the past five years.

He sat down to eat his dinner, a steak and brown ale. Bob sat down next to him, watching him eat, and Harry thought again what a shame it was that Bob was stuck like this. Eternity seemed too long to punish someone for something, no matter what it was. On the other hand, if Bob hadn’t been punished, he would never have met him, and that would be a great loss to his life.

Suddenly Bob spoke. “Harry, I want to thank you.”

Harry’s brow furrowed. “For what?”

“All this.” Bob waved a hand, indicating the places set at the table, and the remains of the straw in a ceramic dish. “No one else would have bothered celebrating like this, much less setting a place for Winifred.” He paused. “Most of my other masters were like your uncle, and even the ones who were decent didn’t really give a damn about me. So thank you.”

Harry coughed, embarrassed. “Don’t mention it, Bob.”

He finished his meal, and got up. “I’ll need to clean up before I go to bed.”

Bob nodded. “See you tomorrow. Oh, and Harry?” as he left to go to the lab.

“Hm?”

“Happy birthday.”

Harry smiled. “Thanks, Bob.”

He cleaned up the dishes, put the apples and nuts into a bowl, and cleaned the ashes out of the dish. Then he opened the cupboard and took out another tuft of straw and a match.

Traditionally, straw was burned at Samhain for the souls in purgatory. He burned straw for Winifred, although she might no longer be in purgatory. And every year, after Bob left, he burned straw for him. This might not be purgatory in the religious sense, but it was close enough. And so every year, Harry burned the straw, and hoped that Bob’s punishment would end.


End file.
